The hydroformylation of olefins to yield aldehydes and alcohols is a well known reaction. Typically, olefins are reacted with carbon monoxide and hydrogen at a temperature of from about 100.degree. to about 300.degree. C and a pressure of from about 1,000 to about 4,500 psig in the presence of a soluble, homogeneous catalyst such as cobalt octacarbonyl. High reaction pressures are necessary with such prior art catalysts to prevent decomposition of the catalyst. To overcome this disadvantage, metal carbonyl catalysts have been complexed with certain ligands to provide catalysts that are more stable and are effective at pressures as low as one atmosphere. Thus, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,239,569 discloses that cobalt carbonyl can be complexed with stabilizing phosphorus-containing ligands such as trialkylphosphines to yield catalysts that are highly effective at low pressures. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 3,239,566 discloses catalysts that are stable and active at low pressures consisting of ruthenium or rhodium in complex combination with carbon monoxide and trialkylphosphines. All of these catalysts, however, suffer from the disadvantage that they are soluble, so that time consuming and costly catalyst separation and recovery steps must be employed.
Several heterogeneous hydroformylation catalysts have been disclosed in an attempt to avoid the problems of catalyst separation and recovery. U.S. Pat. No. 3,487,112, for example, teaches the preparation of a ruthenium carbonyl catalyst complexed with an alkylphosphine, or an alkylarsine, supported on alumina or carbon. Netherlands Patent No. 70/16532 discloses silica or silica-alumina as a support for hydroformylation catalysts. And Netherlands Patent No. 70/06740 discloses polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride as catalysts supports. Still other heterogeneous catalysts are disclosed in German Patent No. 2,000,829 and Netherlands Patent No. 70/18322. Some of the above-cited catalysts involve a reversible adsorption of the metal carbonyl catalyst on an amorphous solid; others involve the incorporation of the catalyst ligand into a polymer backbone. In the first instance, the catalyst is easily leached away from the support by hydroformylation reactants and reaction products; in the second instance, conventional polymers such as polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride are partially soluble in the reaction mixture and in addition have poor thermal stability at the elevated temperatures required for hydroformylation.